


Lake of Sorrows

by dragongrrl



Series: Solangelo Shorts :) [1]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Angst and Humor, Angst with a Happy Ending, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Minor Character Death, Pre-Relationship, did I mention some angst?, infirmary, it's not actually super angsty, just kinda angsty, nico comforts will
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-31
Updated: 2015-08-31
Packaged: 2018-04-18 06:02:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,510
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4694807
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dragongrrl/pseuds/dragongrrl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Somehow, three hell-hounds ended up in camp half-blood. Will is in charge of the infirmary, but has no where near enough healers to help everyone. Nico ends up being the person they needed in the infirmary the most. Summaries are hard, guys.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lake of Sorrows

~~~~~~~~3 Months After The War~~~~~~~~~~

No one knows how three hell-hounds ended up inside camp. No one knows why they just so happened to attack while the Seven and Nico were living in/visiting New Rome. And for the life of him, Will cannot figure out how said hell-hounds ended up ambushing a beginning how-to-hold-your-sword class for the younger/newer campers. 

All Will knew at this point, as he was running a 10-year-old girl with slashes across her chest into the infirmary on a stretcher, was that roughly ten campers needed his healing skills desperately. 

And he needed help. Only four of his siblings were gifted with healing powers, and two of them were exhausted from healing over-zealous Capture the Flag players the night before. That left him with three able-bodied healers (himself included), two exhausted ones and three ‘nurses’ from the Apollo cabin that were skilled in only non-power related treatments. Will was… afraid, to say the least. 

It was likely some of the injured might die. 

He ran with all his might, blinking furious tears out of his eyes as he burst into the infirmary. The Apollo kids ran around frantically but with purpose, knowing that every second mattered when there were more patients in critical condition than medical staff. They looked up at Will when he entered, desperation evident in their faces. 

“Will. What do we do?” Austin asked, his usually-cheery voice bleak with helplessness. 

Will quickly looked around the room. Eleven beds- no _twelve_ \- were freshly occupied, and already one of his healers was passed out in a corner. He took a deep breath and looked back at Austin.

“All that we can.” 

He started issuing orders, spreading out the medical attention among the twelve campers evenly as he himself ran to the closest bed and started a healing hymn for Apollo. 

“He can hang on for a bit longer. Campers in beds 5, 9, and 10 are in more critical conditions.”

A voice startled Will out of his singing and he turned to meet the startling black gaze of the boy behind him. 

Nico raised his eyebrows, “Well? They aren’t getting any better while you stare at me.”

Questions could wait. Will immediately shouted at the healers and got them over to the campers in the three beds Nico mentioned. He was about to go back to his patient, a boy with several deep slashes on his midriff that Will wasn’t sure weren’t fatal, when Nico placed a hand on his shoulder. 

“Will. He can be healed without godly powers. I can sense enough to know that the only thing that threatens his hold on life now is the blood loss. One of the trained, non-powered healers can save him. You need to see the camper in bed 9. She… she’s barely alive at all. And your sibling needs help.” 

Nico was right, gods dammit. “Kayla! Come help this camper!” 

Will sprinted over to bed 9 and begin his hymn anew. 

Time passed. Will healed and ran and healed again and again without pause. He barely registered the fact that Nico was telling him, and eventually all the healers, which patients needed help. Slowly, the chaos grew more ordered as the injured campers were healed from any fatal injuries. 

All at once, there was silence in the infirmary. 

Nico looked around at the healers and said simply “There is no more to be done,” before turning and walking outside into the sunshine. 

Will looked around, a relieved smile on his face. Every camper he saw was in a stable condition, and the healers could begin the much less-stressful healing of minor injuries. 

He looked around the room one last time. Ten… eleven…

Twel—

Oh _shit._

The 10-year old girl he had run in was lying unmoving on a bed by the door, injuries ugly and untreated. Will quickly ran over to her, tears spilling down his face because he already knew, but he just had to check, had to make sure there wasn’t one shred of hope he could cling onto and he grabbed her wrist and…

No pulse. 

Will stood in shock. One of his siblings tentatively put a hand on his shoulder. He failed. She was dead and he couldn’t save her. Tears begin welling in his eyes. It was too much. War was one thing, and Will was able to handle death a little better in uncertain times but this… 

…something inside him cracked. 

“Ka-Kayla? I need a ten. You’re in charge.”

Kayla look at him in concern, but guided him to the door of the infirmary. Once he was sure she had gone back inside, he bolted, running from the infirmary and the unexpected tragedy within it. He ran and ran until he was at the shore of the lake, and even then he ran until he was knee-deep in water, where he stopped and turned his face up to the sun, tears flowing freely. 

She had died, and he had done nothing. 

A quiet splashing came from behind him. Nico came to a stop beside him, though the water was half-way up his thigh. 

“Will. There was nothing you could have done.” 

He glared down through the tears in his eyes at the little black-haired demigod beside him. Dammit, what the hell does he know about his powers and what he could-or-could-not have done? The eyes beneath the black hair glared right back. 

“Will, just listen to me. Do you know why I shadow-travelled back here when I could have stayed in New Rome? I always… keep an eye on this place, so to speak, and I felt her soul enter the underworld. She was dead a few seconds after you entered the infirmary. That’s why I was able to come back and help you save the others. Eight of them would have died, Will, had you not trusted me and worked to near-death yourself.” 

Will’s breath caught in his throat. Eight more would have died? That was… worse than he thought. Thinking back on the injuries he treated, though, he realized Nico could very well be right. The pain of the 10-year-old demigod’s death was still there, but… it was less accusatory; a more pure emotion of grief and loss rather than guilt and helplessness. 

He still felt a little bit guilty, but it was far more manageable. 

Silence fell between them while Will processed the new information. After a few long minutes, Will turned his watery gaze back to Nico, even managing a small smile as something Nico said after the war came back to him. He teased, in a poor imitation of Nico’s voice:

“’Why would you want a son of Hades in the same room with people you’re trying to heal?’ He asked me, three months ago. ‘Why would anyone want that?’ he had questioned. Well, Nico, looks like you and I just saved the lives of eight demigods. I think that’s reason enough for you to hang around the infirmary.”

Nico looked away, but Will saw the micro-smirk on his face before he could hide it away again. 

“So I may have some uses, I guess. The creepy factor still remains.” 

Will snorted. “Please. You want to hear creepy? Lou Ellen once- without my knowledge- followed me around for 2 days to test out some sort of unseen-thingy she had been working on with her siblings. You, death boy, are definitely the opposite of creepy.” 

Nico just gave him an incredulous look. “Will, I literally radiate underworld magic. Grass dies when I’m upset and I can summon skeletons at any time to kick your ass. I’m the poster boy of creepy.”

“ _Puh-lease._ If you were a poster boy it would be of adorable little monster-slaying, bad-ass demigods, not creepiness.” Will ruffled Nico’s adorable black mop of hair to further emphasize his point.

Nico stared at Will as if he had grown a second head, rooted to the spot, his hair a tussled mess. A small blush was making its way across his face, but before Will could wonder why Nico did something even more astonishing. 

He laughed. Loud and sincerely, Nico di Angelo was laughing. 

Will couldn’t help but feel a little proud of that fact. He started laughing with Nico, an action he’d thought himself incapable of doing a few minutes ago. 

“I’m se-serious, di Angelo,” Will said between giggling and gasping for air, “Creepy is the last thing that comes to mind when I think of children of the underworld,” teasing evident in his voice. Nico laughed harder, giving Will a playful shove-

SPLOOSH. 

Oh yeah, Will remembered as he sat up in the water, completely soaked. They were standing in the lake, laughing like a bunch of idiots. The reason for being in the lake came back to Will, and his merriment subdued. 

Nico looked at him sitting chest-deep in the lake water, guilt written all over his face. 

“Umm… sorry…” 

Will got up and pushed the wet hair out of his eyes. He gave Nico a small smile to say no-harm-done, before looking out over the surface of the lake, still saddened by the girl’s death but grateful for Nico’s help in saving the lives of the others. 

Speaking of death boy…

“Nico. You didn’t happen to _shadow travel_ your way to the infirmary, did you?”

Nico rolled his eyes. Of course he shadow-travelled, and Will knew it.

“Uh, no Will. I just used my super-fun rainbow sunshine powers to-“

“ _Nico why don’t you ever listen to Doctor’s Orders?_ ” Will interrupted, grabbing Nico’s hands. Nico mumbled something about taking those orders and shoving them up his- 

“Nico!” said Will, aghast. “You’re, like, almost half as bad as you were right after the war. _Which means_ you are in serious danger of fading. _Which means_ you need at least 3 days of rest-“

“You told me three days of rest after the war, Will, remember?”

“And you slept through the first two so I kept you an extra one for a total of four. But fine. Two days of rest in the infirmary, starting now. How did your powers get so depleted? I know California’s a long way away, but you shouldn’t be this close to fading…” 

Nico shifted uncomfortably, his hands still in Will’s grasp. 

“I might or might not have shadow travelled to get McDonalds a few times while visiting New Rome…”

Will was beyond exasperated. “…You. You used your life-threatening powers, against doctor’s orders I might add, to go get fast food. Which is bad for you. Like shadow travelling. Don’t you have ANY common sense in that little death head of yours?”

Nico scowled and was about to defend his ‘poor’ but totally worth it life decisions when laughter cut through the air. 

Will and Nico quickly turned around to see a bunched group of grinning demigods laughing at them through the misty image of an Iris-message.  
Nico quickly tore his hands from Will’s grasp, scowling at the seven and Reyna. 

“-De-Death Head! He said you ha-have a death head!” wheezed Percy, doubled over with laughter. Jason and Hazel were losing it too. Reyna was the first to calm down, smiling at Nico and Will. 

“We were just checking that everything was alright. Nico shadow-travelled away so suddenly…”

The laughter subsided as the demigods noticed the frowns on Nico’s and Will’s faces. 

Nico met Reyna’s gaze. “Guys… there was an attack in camp. I felt… a demigod’s soul enter the underworld which is why I came so quickly. Her death… was an awful shock. But it could have been much worse.”

Will chimed in, providing details not even Nico was up to speed on. “There were three hell-hounds that somehow ended up in camp and stumbled upon a beginning sword class for our younger campers. If it weren’t for Nico’s amazing abilities, letting us know who was in the most critical conditions, we would have lost eight more campers as well.” 

Nico waved off the compliment. “Anyway, I think I’m gonna stay here instead of coming back to New Rome. Someone needs to oversee the burial for the fallen demigod, and we were planning on coming back in two days anyway.”

The eight demigods in the Iris-messaged were all subdued, mourning the unnecessary loss of yet another demigod, one who was apparently so new to camp that not even Will knew her name. 

“Alright, Nico. Give us an Iris-message if you need anything, okay? We’ll send your luggage back with Jason and Piper when they return.” Reyna said, then dissolved the Iris message, but not before Nico heard Jason ask “wait, why are they standing in the middle of the la-?”

Nico and Will looked at each other with mild surprise, completely forgetting that they were, indeed, standing in the lake. Nico’s jeans were soaked up to his thighs, and Will was-

Well, soaked in general. 

“Come on Nico, let’s head back to the infirmary. I need to help my siblings treat the minor injuries, not to mention change my clothes, and you need some bed rest.” 

Will took Nico’s hand and started trudging out of the water. They were almost on the beach when Nico paused, his eyes unfocused.

“Nico…?”

“She’s in Elysium now, Will. She had just finished standing before the judges of the underworld and now she’s in Elysium.” Nico looked relieved, a lot of tension Will hadn’t noticed before leaving his body. 

Will smiled at Nico. “Hey Nico… thanks. For everything. I’m still going to struggle with my guilt and grief over her death because I’m human, but… you made it a million times more manageable. So thanks for not only saving a bunch of lives, but for giving me some peace of mind.”

Nico blushed again, mumbling a ‘you’re welcome’ before continuing to the infirmary. He stopped again and turned to Will, his cheeks still pink. 

“Actually, Will, after I have some rest… I wouldn’t mind using my time in the infirmary to learn how to help out… I mean it looks like you guys could use some extra hands around but I wouldn’t want to be in the way or anything-“

Will smiled a full, true smile. “I’d love having you around to help, Nico! I can teach you how to properly dress wounds and administer ambrosia and on breaks I can introduce you to the infirmary’s DVD collection and it’ll be great! Ooh wait- can I call you Nurse Nico?” 

Nico gave Will a glare. 

“On second thought, I’m gonna hide away in my cabin where no one will ever bother me again.”

Will chuckled quietly as the two paused just outside the infirmary doors. 

“Alright, no Nurse Nico. But, seriously, death boy. I don’t know where I’d be mentally right now if it weren’t for you.”

Nico smirked “Still drowning in your lake of sorrows, I guess?”

“No, I’d be standing in my lake of sorrows. I almost drowned because _someone_ pushed me.”

“…Shut up, Solace.” But despite everything, he was smiling as he said it. 

And so was Will.

**Author's Note:**

> Hello lovelies!
> 
> It's been a bit since I've posted, but here's a longer fic to make up for it. :)   
> I had this idea when I read Nico questioning why anyone would want a child of the underworld in the infirmary and my immediate reaction was like "Uh, me? Like definitely? Being able to sense when souls go/are close to the underworld? Super useful, yes?" 
> 
> So yeah. Because of that, though, this fic ain't all fluff. So here's my first attempt at angst. Lemme know what you think! Kudos, comments (compliments and constructive nice critique both welcome), even emails (see profile) are all welcome! Love ya guys!
> 
> Set in the same universe as Bees?, Bees!, and Will-Full.


End file.
